The Spooklight, also known as the Hornet Spooklight, Hollis Light, and Joplin Spook Light, is a mysterious light in the sky located on the border between southwestern Missouri and northeastern Oklahoma. It is found a few miles west of the small town of Hornet, Missouri. This event happens when people mistake the headlights of distant cars for something else. The coordinates are 36°56′38.18″N 94°38′34.80″W / 36.9439389°N 94.6430000°W / 36.9439389; -94.6430000.

Origin and history

A section of Route 66 that runs from east to west, located south of Quapaw, Oklahoma, is in line with a farm road named E 50, which is commonly called "Spooklight Road." This road is about ten miles (16 km) east of Route 66, across Spring River. Because of this alignment, headlights from cars traveling east on Route 66 can sometimes be seen from high points along E 50. This is the reason for the Spooklight. The first person to write about this in a newspaper was AB MacDonald, who described it in the January 1936 issue of the Kansas City Star. This phenomenon has been tested many times through experiments. In these tests, fireworks, spotlights, and car headlights along Route 66 have been seen by people watching from Spooklight Road. Some of these tests were done in 1946 by Thomas Sheard, in 1955 by a group from Kansas City, in 1965 by Robert Gannon, and in 2015 by Allen Rice and his "Boomers" group.

Like many other ghost lights, stories about the Spooklight suggest it existed before cars. However, no written records support these claims. Research by journalist Paul W. Johns found that the Spooklight was not mentioned in any printed material before 1926, the year that section of Route 66 was officially named.

In the 1960s, a museum about the Spooklight was located at the eastern end of E 50. In an article from Popular Mechanics, Robert Gannon described the museum as a "tourist trap that doesn't quite make it." The museum had a telescope that cost 25 cents to use, but the owners placed it indoors so visitors could look through a small hole in the wall. This setup made the telescope ineffective for viewing the light clearly. The owner said this was done to keep the telescope dry. Gannon brought a similar telescope and showed that the light, which looked like one single light to the naked eye, was actually two car headlights that always appeared together.

For many years, local businesses and chambers of commerce have promoted the Spooklight as a way to attract tourists and increase revenue. In 1969, the Missouri Chamber of Commerce included a false statement in a press release, claiming scientists had not yet explained the origin of the light. In 1955, the Joplin Chamber of Commerce published a guidebook titled The Tri-State Spook Light. In 1963, the Neosho Chamber of Commerce released its own tourist booklet about the Spooklight. In the 1950s, the Missouri Division of the U.S. Brewers Foundation ran newspaper ads promoting the Spooklight, hoping it would increase beer sales to visitors.

Mythology

Many stories tell about the origin of the Spooklight. Stories found online often mention that someone, possibly named Foster Young, wrote a document called The Ozark Spook Light around the 1880s. This is said to argue against the idea that the Spooklight is caused by distant headlights. However, there is no proof that the document or the person who wrote it ever existed.